Rivian's Earnings and Zoom Shares Rally

We sit down exclusively with Matt Harris, Bain Ventures partner for more. But before we go into the private side of the market, let's talk so much more about the world of earnings we've done Rivian. Let's push your head to what was really on the move today in trading,

and it was Zoom. You must have seen it, of course after the bell yesterday released its fourth quarter earnings and they be shares rallied therefore as they reported better than expected results, in particular a strong outlook for adjusted earnings. Let's bring in the CFO, Kelly seckelberb for more. Kelly always great to have you on the show. Just tell us about the focus on profitability this new environment, how are you able to boost them so swiftly? Yeah, thanks

for having me. So, we are always focusing on opportunities to drive top line growth, but we want to be very thoughtful about our investments, and in Q four we took a very concerted effort of looking at our expenses in that period and being very thoughtful about prioritizing how

we were spending those dollars. And then, unfortunately, we announced a few weeks ago that we were doing a reduction and that that would comprise about fifteen percent of our workforce, which some of that has already been impacted here in the United States, and then the rest of it will

happen over time. And what that does is it sets us up very nicely for profitability for FY twenty four, which is what we gave guidance on yesterday, and we guided to profitability for the full year of FY twenty four of around thirty six percent, which was about twenty

percent ahead of where consensus was. And we will certainly keep our eye on you making that profitability, but also looking for opportunities to reinvest if there are areas to innovate for our opportunities to add capacity in our sales organizations. So tell us why that innovation, why that investment comes from. Because I'm looking at Pipisona the analyst there, you say, look, you need to look beyond meetings and invest fast. You're already doing it in AI. Where else are you looking?

So we are really excited about the continued growth of our platform. We certainly have already moved beyond meetings. We have Zoom Phone, which is our cloud PBF solution, and we announced on the call yesterday we've sold over five and a half million seats of that product, so really excited there. We also have Zoom Contact Center, which is also our natively built cloud based contact center, is our largest call, our largest customer to date on that platform yesterday.

And then we have Zoom Mikeeper sales. And I should mention that both Zoom Contact Center and Zoomkeeper Sales are highly leveraging AI in their solutions to bring intelligent answers to our customers and our prospects. Kelly JP Morgan Similarly, you know they're talking about the new products when those gain traction balancing against execution risk, but they also want to know about when the macro picture improves and helps your top line is the CFO, what are you seeing

in your end markets? What are you hearing about the health of your customers and the global economy right now? Yeah, certainly the economy has been a headwind for us on a global basis. We are facing currency pressures just like everyone else is as well as you know, customers just being very thoughtful about every dollar that they're investing, and

that was lesilting in elongate sales cycles and more deal scrutiny. However, you know, a Zoom is very well positioned even in this market because we are highly priced competitive, and what we offer is the opportunity for our customers to consolidate more on this platform that they already know and love, and the change management is easy if they already deployed

the Zoom client. And so what we see is that we have an opportunity to really bring more value to our customers and potentially upsell them even in an environment where they might be looking for cost savings themselves. Kelly, Zoom went there just like every other technology company. This week, Artificial intelligence took us through the strategy behind AI. Are you acting a bit opportunistically talking about AI this week. No,

so AI is not new to the Zoom platform. We have had aspects of AI embedded in our solution for a very long time. We have things like transcription, so if you record a Zoom meeting, you can get an automated transcription, you know result after that. We also have translation, which is very valuable when you're working with multinationals. And then we do have some new products that we're announced in Q four. We have Zoom Virtual Agent, which is

part of our contact center solution. It's our conversational AI solution that was accelerated by our acquisition of Salving, which was done a few quarters ago. We also have Zoom Iq for Sales, which uses AI to analyze meetings and help make them as effective as possible. So we have been leveraging AI. What I think you've heard of a call yesterday is Eric is really excited about continuing to

do more and partnering with open AI. But it's not new for us Catty anything new in terms of acquisitions planned, So we are always looking for opportunities. You know. In the call yesterday, we highlighted a few areas that you could see potential growth from US in FY twenty four. That includes continued expansion of the platform, so I think, you know, expanding into products, extending our products. What we've done to date has been acquisitions that have accelerated our development.

We also talked about departmental applications, which I think lend themselves nicely to potential acquisitions. So we're constantly looking for those opportunities, and you know, it's a big part of how we think about our growth strategy and our capital allocation strategy as well. Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg, thank you so much for your time. Zoom shares closing up a little more than one percent following that court's earnings. Tesla

has just announced a new plant in northern Mexico. It's it's fifth factory so far, but it's first south of the US border. This as the electric vehicle makers trying to beef up its capacity, which already stands at one point nine million cars per year. It's also as Mexico in particular is lorn in more EV makers, the likes of BMWGM announcing investments recently. It's already a real hub

for the making of combustion engines. It's a success for the President of Mexico Amlo, although his exact wish for the plant had been to be built in a southern state of Mexico, which is more economics and deprived, although he did manage to ring out some significant environmental commitments from Elon Musk, in particular the use of reusable water throughout the manufacturing process, because water is scarce in that part of the country and water is very heavily needed

in the manufacturing of vehicles. And they're painting. Now, let's get on for time for talking tech, and we're going to start with Uber, which wrapped up at one point seven five billion dollars leverage loansale on Tuesday, becoming one of the latest companies to tap into demand four riskier debt. It will use proceeds from the seven year offering to refinance loans that mature in twenty twenty five s according

to a person with knowledge of the matter. Meanwhile, Dish says some of its data has been stolen in a recent ransomware attack, including potentially personal information. The announcement sent shares slumping to their lowest level and more than a decade since. Of course, Table two thousand and nine in fact, that's while dish, sling, whiless and data networks remain operational.

The company says in a filing that its internal communications customer call centers, internet sites they have been affected, and Apple supplies rushing to move production out of China far faster than observers anticipation. That's according to one of Apple's most important partners, Airport's maker, go a Tech, is one of many manufacturers actually exploring locations beyond its native China.

It's trying to avoid fallout from escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing and ed. This is why I think it's really interesting because we know the expanding issues between the US between China. They began with the trade war, but it's really ramped up according of course, not only around the world of technology, but also chips and look, it's spurring the rethink of electronics industries that have had decades

all supply chain. We went, of course to our audience, didn't We ask mickey question, Yeah, whether or not China needs to take backseat when it comes to supply chain? Should there be a shift? Eighty two percent of respondent saying yes, need to diversify. What's so interesting for me Kara is how quickly this is pivoted to the long term story. Remember, in the short term this was all about COVID and the disruption in Jong Joe and de

risking from COVID. Now it's political, And isn't it interesting that we've sort of come off that discussion about Tesla trying to put another manufacturing unit in Mexico. So many people trying to enshore that little bit and make sure

that it's a little bit closer to home. And we see perhaps in many ways the cost identification with China all used to be about the bottom line, and in an era where we are talking about companies having to think about profitability, they also have to think about the anxiety the geopolitics that they become consumed with. Yeah, now de risking and there's opportunity for emerging markets like India and Vietnam to take some of that supply chain. We'll

keep tracking that now. Coming up, Luminar Technologies Wow, light oar maker one to watch exclusive partnership with Scale AI for its Luminar AI engine. Another piece they I use. We'll discuss next with CEO Austin Russell. This is Bloomberg LDAR Technology manufacturer Luminar is partnering exclusively with Scale AI

for its Luminar AI engine. The company announced the partnership at its Luminar Day event and Investor Day, and says Scales technology will now be available exclusively to Luminar and no longer accessible to other lidar rivals. Joining us now is Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell. Austin, of course, you also gave us some financial guidance for this year. But let's start with that relationship. Why is an AI

partnership relevant for a lidar maker light Luminar. I think we have some technological issues, as is sometimes the case. Ed Hey, yeah, I mean, look, we're still dealing in this world where we're going via zoom and we're training people remote. Look, it's interesting, right, think about the parallels between Luminar and maker of lidars and Tesla. Tesla uses artificial intelligence to basically train its system to detect the world around it. Tesla system does not use lidar, It

uses camera only based inputs. Luminar is partnering with all kinds of automakers Mercedes Volvo because they think that actually lidar is the best input when it comes to autonomous driving, and it is interesting ultimately how many relationships they're forging with other autos. I mean, you saw the share move on the upside because of an interview you'd done with the Mercedes CEO as well. Yeah, so I was at

Mercedes R and D Center in Sunnyvale last week. One of the announcements was that Luminar is going to be providing the lidar hardware which goes into their drive pilot system, part of their sort of level three autonomous system. Not yet available in US apart from Nevada, but a great deal for them. And as you said, the shares really jumped. Let's talk about the US from them, and let's talk about regulation in the US. Said, while we get, of course,

our Luminarile conversation back on track. Many have been discussing regulation of technology, big tech in the US. I've been talking about m and a overside hot topic across many, including founders who are considering, you know, where they should grow their startups. Is this country the best for culturing

innovation now? I spoke with Romemo abbe is, founder of fintech ISSUSU about his focus on scaling that business and if, as an immigrant from the slums of Lagos in Nigeria, whether the US remains the best place to do just that. Take listen. It's always about this idea of giving people a fighting chance, because no one wants an hand out. We all just want a chance to show what capable of when this country. Sometimes that's fat fetched, and that's

what gets us up at night. I don't get excited by thee and thirty million ore and forty five million dollars with racis and issuss inception. I don't get excited by the facts that we grew by three per last year. I get excited and in my all end score every month, we talk about the facts that look, someone just picked up the keys study at home because we helped them

establish all beauty our credit scores. Someone just kept We just kept the roof over tens of thousands of people's heads, and they when I evicted during the pandemic, there was a gentleman called Scott Folk in New York City goes on the brink of eviction. A plumber lost his job because there's nothing to do. During COVID reached out to us hopeless because you heard us on local News. We called Scotts and paid for three months of his rent.

Two months later, Scotts called us my co founder, and I see me away crying because Scott said, I don't know what would have happened to me, but you gave me an opportunity, and I have a job that's paying me over on jo and twenty thousand dollars. Wow, that's what America is all about. America gives you that chance.

But I'm starting to talk to normal people about the worry that certain right relations, certain ways in which M and A is being pushed back on certain let's even say in the world of crypto, Yes, it needs to have rules of the road, but it's happening inforcement is the new regulation. Is there a worry that people are not going to see the US as that I think there's strength and numbers and their strength and our diversity.

This country just attracts the story this country tells to the world of this idea of creating a more perfect union, this idea that if you walk I played by the rules, that you can get at it. But that's not true for a lot of people. It's not true for the African American communities that have built this country. But still today the average white family has ten times as much wealth than the average black family. It's not true for the Latinos. They have twelve times less worth than the

average white family. So when we think about what's going on, what I encourage us to do, and that's what we did at issue. So from a pedigree standpoint is we went to policy makers and say, look, but we we are doing. The only thing we're going to plead initially is to plead their for credic role. Do no hand when we report rental data at the SUS, so well report no negative data. So as you're thinking about innovative ideas, don't wait for the SEC to struck down your innovative idea.

Don't wait for Congress, you know to say things I'm working. Don't wait for the FTC to say this M and A won't work right, Be proactive and just say look, these are some of the ideas we have, These are the pieces we have in mind, and this is how it's a creative to this country. At the SUSI were very very clear if people establish their credit scores, they

are forty five million people in this country. They don't have a credit score or have a thing for our The average debts in America is over ninety two thousand dollars. If you do that math and unlock the capital and people can get access to don in two thousand dollars, you can unlock close to four trillion dollars in capital. That's not only good for the us GDP, right, it's good for you know, the policy makers were by their constituents who would also have the opportunity to build wealth

and will probably vote for them again. So we got to go back to what I call the bad A Kien days Eugene Bader policy. One on one, if you want to make sure things work, you got to get a village to get on boarded with it. It's not the wild wild West. You don't build it and break

things and come back and ask for forgiveness. You go to policy makers and say I'm interested in pleading April credic rule and we're going to do no m to the best of my abilities and control for that and be just as capitalist and say we're going to do good, make money and we all win. I cannot tell you how inspiring that conversation was with the usu COO CEO Bromemo Abbe, who's speaking at a Cornell Bloomberg technology event last week. Welcome actively med Technology. I'm Caroline hard in

New York and Love in San Francisco. Now, Bain Capital Ventures CARA raised nearly two billion dollars across two new venture funds targeting startups of all sizes across technology and software, including fintech, infrastructure, apps and commerce tech. And I'm delighted to say joining us now for an exclusive interview is Baying Capital Ventures partner Matt Harris. It's a lot of money.

It's a record for the firm. I think I'm right in saying should we be surprised at the timing of an announcement of two new funds to this scale, We'll also we're gratified by it so well. It's a nice vote of confidence from our investors and some new investors who joined us, and I think it should be a boost, frankly for the ecosystem. I think there is not, in

my view, or retreat from technology investing. I think technology is moving very quickly, and I think what we found is that investors are still very interested and this may be in fact that buying opportunity versus anything else. There's a wide remit. So it's all stages early through growth. You know software broadly, but you're really more focused on

the end markets. What's the thesis behind that strategy? Sure, well the thesis is broadley B to B, so I'll start there, Okay, you know, that's what we think we're best at. Where bank capital we manage one hundred and sixty billion dollars, We have ownership positions and hundreds of multibillion dollar companies, and so what we bring it to the table often is those first B to B customers and that can range across commerce, financial services, application software

and infrastructure software. And then in terms of stage, you know, we build our expertise in these domains and that allows us to range widely in terms of from seed straight through to the later stages of venture. What's so fascinating, course is your own background, and in particular you've got a background in fintech. I'm looking at some portfolios and then thinking go Cardless is definitely one that used to

report on back in the UK. What was notable in your statement was how people have recently been questioning due diligence being done on some companies and the ability to really help your portfolio companies. Is that a slight dig of what's been occurring largely in the world of crypto. I think of the FTX fallout. I know that you have exposure previous funds to TCG. How are you thinking about really doing the diligence long companies in this new world,

this new environment. I don't think there's anything new about the way we do due diligence now. I think, you know, being capital as a long legacy, I would say of being very careful, very analytical, and we didn't change anything about that. I think this market environment is better for us. We can do more due diligence in the way that we've always been accustomed to, because we have more time to make deals, more time to get to know founders.

What was disorienting about twenty twenty one was frankly, how quickly everyone had to move, and that didn't play to our strengths. You know, we are known for taking our time and doing our work, and so this market environment is frankly much more comfortable for us in our style of investment. And where will you be doing the investment as well? I mean, are you looking at all geographies as well as all size as of companies we're Our

team is split between New York and San Francisco. Probably seventy percent of our work in terms of investing is done in the US and the balance is done in Europe, and that percentage has been increasing we frankly, you know, I've been doing this twenty seven years, and a couple of decades ago, European venture capital was not that robust an area. And increasingly though in the UK, as you mentioned with Go Carlis and around continental Europe, we're seeing

really interesting opportunities with fantastic multi time founders. So that's an increasing amount of our attention. Now. I don't know, I'm looking for your reactions to whether you roll your eyes to this question, but I'll just say, artificial intelligence, I've heard about that. What is your vehicle and all official intelligence right now? And where do you see the opportunities? I mean, it's been a big part of our investing for the last ten years. That's the thing. I think

generative artificial intelligence to be brand new. Yeah, but I think that's relevant because we have deep expertise in that. You know, Samanta Machines was we think the leading linguistic artificial intelligent artificial intelligence company that we were the largest Investeran sold to Microsoft, and we've gone on to invest in the modern data stack, you know, to this day, most recently a company called Unstructured, a company called high Touch.

So to us, generative AI is the latest in a series of advancements in modern data analytics and strikingly useful. You know, we already see it in use in our verticals, in financial services, very much in commerce and in marketing and sales technology. So we're excited. Caroline touched on it earlier.

But you know, the firm, you know, last April launched a crypto only fund, and I wondered what your assessment is around the hype with generative AI versus what we saw in crypto related companies in twenty twenty one through twenty twenty two. Are they analogous or are these two separate things entirely? Well, you know, human beings are prone to boom and bust cycles in their excitement, and we saw that in crypto. In fact, you know, we've seen

it three or four times in the last decade. In crypto, things get overheated, things break, and so far they've always come back, and frankly, AI itself, which is a term that's been around for thirty years, has seen its own

boom and bust cycles along the way. I have no doubt things will get overheated in AI, and there will be articles in nine months about the letdown and the unfilled promise, but we think the promise is quite durable as it relates to AI, and we also think that way about decentralization, and we're sticking to our guns on both those things for the long term. So looking for new opportunities in both those sphases now for sure. I mean we tend to go where the most passionate and

talented founders are. That's really the leading lights for us in terms of where we devote our energies. And there have been a lot of sort of fly by nite and crypto founders who have left the field, and that's perfectly fine. But the founders that are dedicated to the ideas of decentralization, of leveraging blockchain technology to disrupt industries, they haven't left. And there will be some fly binite founders in AI as well, and we'll ignore those to

focus on the really committed folks. So Yeah, we're very active in both sectors. We were just hearing from one fintech founder who was lucky enough to speak with it last week from a SUSU talking about, well, the over sights of regulation here in the United States as well.

What are you making, what are the really infused talented founders in the moment that you're speaking to making of the enforcement in crypto, the focus on fintech, the evolution of regulation here in the United States, Well, I think one way to look at it is, actually it is quite striking the absence of regulation for a long period of time, and almost always, in my experience, that leads to a backlash. The pendulum swings, and it often swings violently.

But these things tend to synthesize over time. We will end up in everly with sensible regulation. That has been the pattern, and this is the awkward adolescence. And we're going to see a number of fintech companies outside of

crypto who also feel overregulated. I've never met a founder who didn't feel overregulated, but I've maintained the faith again having seen many of these cycles, that where we end up will be a friendly place for commerce, a friendly place for capitalism and a place where founders can get over these obstacles and prevail. So we're very confident. Actually, Matt, Caroline and I expect to be talking about bench capital more than ever on this program and as an asset class.

For want of a better descriptor, I want to get into your LPs. You know, we talked so much about public market volatility last year about the FED, But I wonder who's coming to you and saying I want to be involved in this project across the one point nine billion that you've you've just closed. Well, I will say as an asset class, there were a lot of kind of tourists, tourists who came to the asset class in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one with great amount of

enthusiasm to invest in exciting technology. And what we saw in twenty two as the volumes adventure capital dropped dramatically was it was mostly the tourists leaving. And r LPs are not the Taurus. R LPs are endowments and foundations who've been with us for a long time and who know us deeply and know us to be committed players.

They themselves are committed players. So I think that's where you're going to see in twenty twenty three is a return to folks who are the stalwarts of this industry, both on the LP side and the GP side, that is just terrific by forward and backward. Looking inside Banking Capital Venture's partner Matt Harrish, we're gonna dive yet further into earnings now medical tech in particular, and a company that's looking from hospital to the consumer that much more.

Massimo Ceo is with us Jociani joining us on and earnings that is being in a raise in many ways. It looks like we're looking at full quarter revenue coming in ahead of two billion. We're looking at your look ahead for twenty twenty three two point four to two point four six billion, one ahead of the street's estimers. Just talk to us, Joe about what's the driving force here. Is it the hospital, the winning of new consumers, new clients, or is it the consumer that you want to be

targeting more with products. Well, the growth currently that is projected, it is all about our growth in the hospital from the very successful year we had in attaining both new customers and keeping our existing customers. But then of course with the consumer business for projecting slightly lower growth, but that's because it's not including the consumer health part of our business. So hopefully if it starts taking off, we'll end up doing a lot better than we're projecting. Let's

talk about the technology that's underlying all of this. Many will know you, of course for oxygen manager from measurement in particular oxygen saturation. I think of what my daughter has just been to the doctor and put it on her finger. I'm interested though, as to what the consumer is going to know you for, in particular new products, a connected device of watch that helps you well fundamentally assess your health at home. Thank you, Caroline. As you know,

we're the leading Paul section company in the world. In the hospitals, over two hundred million people are monitored withduct technology and our Paul Sacks technology has been proven to improve outcomes. No other Paul six cemetery has had that pedigree. So what will consumers see. They'll see a serious product. They'll see a product that's truthful with voracity that can make a difference in their lives. About a third of

the population has chronic illnesses. They have serious problems in these serious products, and that's what we hope to give them so they can take better control of their lives. Joe, how much of that revenue guidance this year is carried over momentum from the pandemic. I was just at CS at the start of the year in Vegas and everyone is still talking about how focused the consumer particularies on health data coming out of the pandemic. Yeah, the pandemic

is actually is what gave us the urgency. We all thought about consumer health tracking as either blood pressure ECG, but the pandemic made pauls a symmetry the star because people had these silent hypoxemias and if you weren't detecting it, you could end up, unfortunately dying from not the breeding properly. So at the time we were the only real thing.

We within a month created a product that allowed hospitals that were overwhelmed with COVID patients to send those that didn't need immediate ICU care home and with our veracity and reliability, remotely monitored them. That ended up saving mortality by seventy percent and about eleven thousand dollars. And that's what's driving now hospitals saying, boy, it really worked. We want to now send our patients home sooner and monitor

them remotely with the same or similar technology. I want to just zero in really quick, John, that EPs figure for four year twenty three. What is it allowed that's allowing you to boost that profit against expectations. Well, certainly one of the negatives of the pandemic was the supply chain problems. Costs went up dramatically everywhere, not just in labor, which is more permanent part of our expenditures, but in

materials and supply costs and distribution costs. So as we now are coming out of the pandemic, those costs, most of them are going to normal and we should see that improve our margins into the year. Now. I want to dwell on the w one for a minute, and the watch, because as many people think connected devices and watches,

they do think Apple. And interestingly, there was previous exclusive reporting coming from Bloomberg about how Apple is continuing to focus on consumer health and particular noninvasive, noninvasive glucose monitoring and smart watch. Now, I know you are currently tackling Apple on IP in particular litigation there where are you

particularly concerned about your intellectual property? Well, Apple contacted us in twenty thirteen said you're the platinum and non invasive Monitoring, will sign your confident SHRVY agreement and come meet with us, and we want to integrate your stuff. We did that. Instead, they began hiring our people, taking our ip and unfortunately we notice the launch of patents with our employees names on it, and then their watch with SPO two. So we sue them for trade secret there, which is by

the way, going to trial this month or April. Secondly, we sue them in the International Trade Commission for patent infringement, which just one. We're waiting for the commission's ruling and hopefully sometime June July we should get the exclusion order so that they can no longer sell their watches with our technology in it. Come back discuss that with us winning Kanjo, we'll go out to Apple to get their

comment on all of this. We thank you so much for spending some time with us, Massimo CEO, Joe Kani, and a lot for investors to dwell on with that particular company ed and I know that we're going to have plenty of investors acutely aware of a key investor day tomorrow of pretty important technology company, Tesla. Hey, yeah, Tesla, And what we're expecting is master Plan Part three. It's been six years since Part two. That man that we're

sharing on the screen. Steve Wesley joined Tesla's board just after Elon Musk announced master Plan Part one, so I'm excited to get his take because this is about the evolution of a company that's now going to outline its next ten years for us and many remain deeply committed and bullish on this particular company, the way in which it can involve, all the way in which it can go into robotaxes. We're just throwing from Kathey Wooden last week on that commitment, right, Yeah, and she's still super

boolish on Tesla winning that race. But it's also about energy, right, taking a kind of holistic look of how does Tesla get more vehicles on the road that are electric energy storage as well as a component. I'm excited and is happening during this show, which for you and I it's tricky, but for the audience fantastic. Anyway, coming up, Luminar Technology is unveiling an exclusive partnership with Scale AI for its Luminar AI engine. We're going to get back to that

conversation with CEO Austin Russell. That's next. This is Bloomberg, so light Dart, Makar, Luminars having its capital markets investor day out in Florida are a big part of the roadmap for growth artificial intelligence. Let's bring CEO Austin Russell back into this conversation. Austin, I know Luminar as a

light OAR maker. What are you doing in AI? So we've been actually investing in software and AI systems I think for for years at this point, ever since you know, company came out of stealth mode back in twenty seventeen.

And part of all this is developing this holistic solution you know, for automakers and in conjunction with automakers as as part of you know, well uh full stack products as well as perception products and other capabilities you know that we have and are able to develop in conjunction.

So part of the holistic luminary though, showing that it is a lot more than just the lighter literally all the way from the semiconductor level up through the whole stack through the lighter system software you know, OEM, consumer and consumer and even insurance as opportunities for what we have ahead as what's addressable. It is also an invest to day. You've you've talked about adding a billion dollars this year to your forward bookings. What is the driver

of that grif? Who are you selling to right now? Who are you doing deals with? Yea, So it's largely autommajor automakers there too. So I think from an autonomous vehicle standpoint, you know a lot of people think of these you know, robotaxi type systems with these huge you know, roof racks or a supercomputer in the trunk or something

to like get the driver out of the loop. Our whole thing is all about enhancing the driver, not replacing the driver, and being able to have practical applications of these systems over the course of you know, the relative near term here for production automakers, and that's who we're landing these major deals with. Like for example, just Mercedes last week, you know, announced that you know, they're collaborating with us to be able to expand luminar powered vehicles

across their whole lineup. So they're now going to be m you know, transitioning for a number of those different vehicles or a broad range of different vehicle models, as they said. So that's that's what's happening, and we're getting to it. A lot of revenue growth being talked about, of course, at least one hundred percent for twenty twenty three. Gross margin also something you're talking about keeping that positive

into fourth quarter. How have you had really double down on profitability as investors just don't want growth at any cost anymore. Yeah, you know, it's it's a good question. It's probably more of the flavor of the month when it comes to, you know, how much you're investing in growth versus you know, profitability and that side of it.

I think the reality is like if you wanted to flip a switch and become profitable you know what you know this year, or you could, but I think the smart thing to do is set ourselves up on a trajectory where we can be profitable holistically for our core business starting as soon as you know next year, you know, on a run right basis there too by the end

of the year. And I think from a holistic perspective, though, we do have an opportunity to probably be the what would easily be the first uh, you know, profitable a ton of a vehicle company or equivalent, because like we really have product that's out there that's going into cars like the you know, the ones that you're showing there into consumers hands, and these are like you know, and

for many of them, mainstream production vehicles. So we also said that we're now being embedded across over twenty different vehicle models from a number of different automakers globally. Also, what's the biggest risk you face this year? How what is going to stop you in your tracks if anything? Um, you know, sup probably changed for example, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I mean, I mean there's the execution focus for this.

I think the key is just being able to make sure that we can get this, we get our high volume production facility up in Mexico running. We're successfully executing to that. We actually um it just said that. It's it's actually the Mexico facility is ahead of guidance for what we had, so we should expect that to come online in Q two versus you know in previously set in the second half. So that's that's going to be a huge driver of scale and what enables us to

work with automakers. Said and then you know, started with these global production vehicle launches. I mean that's sort of that point were starting with with Bolvo for example, later this year, Lumina CEO Austin Russell coming to us from Florida, Orlando. No less, we thank he's so much for your time today. Meanwhile, well that does it. From a sedition of Bloomberg Technology, we will bring you, of course, everything you need to

know from the Tesla invested day tomorrow. Steve Wesley is going to be with us, as we've heard continuing, He's gonna be of course from the board initially to us with some really great conversation around the announcements coming from that company. Yeah, I'm excited for that conversation, Caroline, because he's worked with Elon Musk, He's heard from him about how you plan for the long term. What will he

make of this latest master Plan Part three? We'll have to wait and see, but tune in for that and so much recap from this show. Of course, don't forget to check out the podcast wherever you get your podcasts on Apple, Spotify or iHeart so much to discuss in the world of global technology. From San Francisco, from New York, This is Bloomberg